Naruro: The Ultimate Kenjutsushi
by The Grim Overlord
Summary: What is a kenjutsushi? It is one who chooses to train himself in the way of the body, the soul and the blade. One who gives up the world to attain power, and yet still remains attached to it. But most important of all, a kenjutsushi is one who destroys anything and anyone who gets in the way of his goals, or rather, his dreams. Naruto gives up the way of the ninja for the sword.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

NARUTO:

THE ULTIMATE KENJUTSUSHI

By The Grim Overlord

A/N: Hello and welcome to the very first instalment of 'Naruto : The Ultimate Kenjutsushi' , hopefully this story will prove to be enjoyable to some of you, and to the others, well I hope you'll at least take the time to write a short review telling me where I went wrong. Without (too much) further ado, here is the first of (hopefully) many to come.

The First And Only Disclaimer In This Story...

I The Grim One, Though I Know That The Grim One Is Not My Name But Rather A Pretty Cool Pen Name, Still Does Not Own Naruto,

The End

**Beast Speech**

**"I am a big, furry fox that can kill you all!**

**Beast Though**t

**'But, deep down I am only trying to compensate for the pain of losing the one I thought of as a father**'

Human Speech

"Hi, my name is Naruto! Let's be best friends for ever and ever! Did you know my psychologist told me I have serious issues due to the fact that I was hated by 99.99 percent of the population in my village?"

Human Thought

'I wish I had ramen right now'

_Jutsu_

_Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Style: Water Wall)_

Leaves danced through the night sky over Konohagakure, the ninja village that was (arguably) the greatest of all ninja villages. The carved faces of the hokage both dead and alive watched over the village with their sharp piercing gaze, a gaze that spoke of protection and freedom to all who looked at it. All was right with the world... Until a gigantic figure appeared amongst the trees of the forest, it's long tails moving with an almost serpent-like quality. It was so huge that its shadow covered half of Konoha- and it was still well over a mile away!

This grand creature was none other than the harbinger of death, the great Kyuubi no Kitsune, the nine tailed bijuu. It took a few minutes before the general population knew of the beast's arrival and yet as soon as people began panicking ninja were there to begin evacuation procedures, sort of like assassinating guardian angels. It was so meticulously planned that it seemed as though preparations had already been made in cases such an event were to occur, but that was to be expected when two kage-level ninja were in watching over Konoha.

The basic plan was simple- everybody that lived in the village that were below the rank of chunin, including civilians were to be evacuated to the inside of the Hokage Mountain by the chunin level ninja. Everybody who was jounin levelled and above were to engage the bijuu in combat while they awaited the arrival of the fourth hokage who was to come to their aid and defeat the gargantuan fox.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was one such individual, though he was much higher in rank than a simple jounin. As the ex-hokage, Hiruzen was essentially the commander of the entire ninja force, a position that required a lot of on the spot planning and skill in all things military.

His eyes were sunken and the skin on his face looked like the human equivalent of dried leather. His arms and legs looked thin and frail and his ninja clothing was old and battle worn yet this man was still one of the greatest fighters in the elemental nations which spoke heaps about how skilled he must have been in his prime.

He was standing in a clearing in the forest surrounding Konoha, beautiful trees and lush greenery surrounded the area while the moonlight danced though the trees. As Sarutobi looked down at a map of the region he began barking orders to the ninja assembled in front of him, without even once looking up from the map. He did this for two reasons, the first being that it was much more efficient and less time consuming the second, and most important reason was that Hiruzen didn't want to see the faces of the ninja he sent to battle because he would have been overcome with guilt to know that he was sending his men to their deaths, he couldn't do it. It was one of his main reasons he had handed his hat over to Minato, a person could only handle a finite amount of grief and regret before they cracked and Sarutobi's limit had been exceeded years ago.

"Shikaku, you are to try and slow down the kyuubi while Chouza and Inoichi attack him from the front, you will be led by Kakashi who is to do as he sees fit. There are already several other teams engaging the beast three miles south of here, so try not to get in their way"

The Sandaime was counting heavily on Kakashi's squad to hold off the kyuubi for long enough for himself and Minato to initiate a good enough plan to defeat the fox.

"As for the rest of you who were not assigned to a team, you are to weaken the bijuu by launching it with your most powerful long-range attacks, when you leave here let only one thought guide your actions; you are doing this for the good of the village, for your brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and children. Now, move out!"

Each and every ninja in the clearing saluted the Sandaime before moving out, for many it would be the last salute they ever gave.

Kakashi could feel the uncontrollable bloodlust of the kyuubi, could see his own death occur over and over. He watched as the demon ripped him to shreds with his teeth, scratched him to pieces with his claws, knocked him aside with his mountain shattering tails...sat on him.

It was unbelievable just how much raw killing intent simply rolled off the monstrous fox, it was incomparable to any other fear he had felt before and Kakashi was definitely not one to get scared by an impressive amount of Ki from even an experienced jounin. Heck, he could probably handle the Ki of a standard kage-level ninja. And yet this beast before him made him feel as though he was an ant facing off against a lion. And not just because it was ten stories tall and he was only a reasonably average sized human being.

"Okay, you guys know the drill. I'll try and back you up."

It would have been slightly weird ordering around some elite, veteran shinobi, but the Ino-Shika-Cho trio were freshly minted jounin, although Shikaku only became a jounin because his wife had threatened him.

Struggling to brush off the murderous feeling that hung in the air, Kakashi jumped from tree to tree to get to where the massive beast was slowly strolling towards the village. Of course, being a being of such large proportions a slow stroll actually covered a rather large portion of ground in a short time. The beast would probably make it to the village in twenty minutes or less if they didn't slow him down.

The trio had just gotten in formation, Shikaku was hiding behind some nearby bushes with his hands in the infamous seal his clan was widely known for, Chouza and Inoichi were close to the bijuu's massive feet while Kakashi was standing amidst some trees, going through a large amount of handseals.

For a while it was nerve wrackingly quiet, they only sounds Kakashi could hear was the steady beating of his own heart... Until several fireballs were shot at the Kyuubi, which was the signal to begin the attack. Immediately several-of what seemed to be- black tentacles creeped along the ground towards the massive fox and grabbed his leg, forcing it towards the ground and holding it in place at the same time Chouza (who had been eating handfuls of soldier pills while waiting for the signal) expanded to the size of a giant and grabbed the fox in a sleeper hold. Still having the element of surprise, Inoichi quickly and efficiently began placing paper bombs underneath the orange belly of the fox and retreated to a safe area.

It happened in a flash. One minute everything seemed perfectly planned, the massive fox was in a headlock, paper bombs were littered in the hundreds beneath him and his leg was being held firmly to the ground, the next Chouza (who was now as large as a small skyscraper) was held firmly in the grip of one of the monsters nine tails and was flung into a mountain with the ease a grow man would feel when throwing away a piece of paper, the paper bombs exploded and yet it didn't even faze the furry creature let alone cause any real damage. As for the "shadow tentacles" it seemed as though the kyuubi hadn't even realized that his leg was held down and took a step without even slowing down in the slightest.

Unfortunately, because of the sound the bombs had given off the fox turned his head towards the tiny ninja scattered at his feet and attacked them with his paw. Both Inoichi and Shikaku were K.O'd as a result, even though Kakashi had constructed a hastily made a Doton: Douryouheki (Earth Style: Mud Wall) to block the attack.

As soon as the monster had lifted his paw off the two now near comatose jounin Kakashi threw several smoke bombs at the fox's feet/paws which covered the area in a thick blanket of black smoke.

Meanwhile, With Hiruzen

As his ninja- or at least, what used to be his ninja, left the Sandaime Hokage took a deep breath and began channelling his chakra while performing the seals for the summoning jutsu, which was a space-time ninjutsu that allowed the user to call forth a summon creature from its own dimension.

He then placed his hand on the ground and, using all the chakra he had managed to gather thus far he summoned his own personal favourite summoning the monkey king Enma, who arrived in a literal poof of smoke. The appearance of the monkey king was rather similar to that of its summoner, that of someone long past their prime, though, in comparison he was in much better shape.

"Sarutobi... It's been a while since you've summoned me, though, judging by that foul chakra hanging in the air it's probably not so that we could have a drink."

"I wish it was my old friend, it would have been much less harmful to my health," said Hiruzen

"And since you seem to realize the gravity of the situation I assume you know what to do"

"Right" replied Enma simply

The monkey king then, in another loud 'poof' of smoke transformed into a black staff with both ends being tipped in gold. This was none other than the legendary staff of 'The Professor', the one that was said to be as strong as diamond.

Without a moment of hesitation Sarutobi grabbed the staff while it was still in mid-air and in one fluid motion placed it on his back. He immediately jumped to the trees and began jumping from branch to branch all the while channelling chakra to his feet in an effort to arrive at the battlefield sooner.

As he jumped he could just barely make out a fireball being fired at the gigantic nine-tailed fox before he saw the expanding figure of Chouza and the tell-tale explosion at the kyuubi's feet. As he saw Chouza being thrown into a mountain he began channelling even more chakra into his feet to increase his speed.

He arrived no more than one minute later to see Kakashi running up the kyuubi's body with blue lightning covering his hand and making a noise that sounded eerily similar to the sound of birds chirping, at least before Kakashi tried to stab it into the beast's neck- probably trying to aim for a weak point in the creature's anatomy to cause enough damage to buy enough time for a debilitating attack to be dealt to it.

It was a plan worthy of one proclaimed to be a genius, and Hiruzen would have tipped his hat off to Kakashi if he hadn't left it in the hokage mansion, before the attack simply bounced off harmlessly at least.

'Incredible...to be able to not only not even get a scratch when attacked by Kakashi's legendary 'chidori', but to deflect it completely? If it weren't such a dire situation I would probably be running in the opposite direction.'

Trusting Kakashi's hastily assembled squad to be able to handle themselves well enough he headed towards the right side of the monster where the rest of the teams assembled were preparing to deal a massive ninjutsu assault against the monster invader.

He just barely noticed the faces of several well-known Uchiha members in the crowd, including Fugaku Uchiha the candidate for the head of the clan, begin preparing a long ninjutsu that required seventeen hand seals to complete correctly, essentially it was just a much larger, deadlier version of the 'Dragon-flame jutsu' though he wasn't supposed to know that as it was supposed to be a clan secret. And sure enough one of the Uchiha wasn't aiding the others in the creation of the fire jutsu but was casting subtle genjutsu to prevent anyone from finding out the handseal combinations

But, being the hokage for more than half of your lifetime did indeed have its benefits. Some of them being the right to look over privileged and secret information, another being the hidden compartments of the desk in his office, and another being his 'magic orb' that allowed him to look ANYWHERE in the village undetected. It was like a private peepshow-though, with all the benefits there was a lot of pressure. And this pressure could manifest itself in different ways. Including in the form of a gigantic beast probably weighing more than five tons staring you right in the face with its eye that was nearly bigger than your entire body.

'It seems as though he's noticed me...Crap, better do something fast'

Snatching the staff off his back he barely managed to block a fatal clawed stamp of the kyuubi's paw he had to use all the strength he could muster to get back on his feet after being pushed to the ground by the power of the monster. Luckily the paw was taken off him and he could jump back to catch his breath.

Unfortunately the paw was only taken off so the monster could try and pounce on the elderly ninja who was now forced to jump back to avoid the attack. Trying to counter, Sarutobi launched a bunch of hand seals to activate his jutsu

_"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bomb (Doton: Doryudan)"_

The head of a dragon came from the ground and opened its mouth to shoot a ball of mud at the kyuubi, making no sign of any damage whatsoever on the aforementioned monster.

'Shit...It seems as though only the most powerful of my blunt-forced jutsu will do any sort of damage on him and Kakashi's little demonstration proved that none of my shuriken jutsu or any other ninja tool based attack will work, and even if I manage to do any damage to him with his freakish healing ability it won't give us even fifteen seconds of time before he fully recovers. It seem as though I'll have to use that technique again..."

The technique the sandaime was thinking of was the most powerful barrier ninjutsu in his arsenal-in his prime it would have been able to hold the nine-tailed fox with ease, now however, he would be lucky to hold the beast back for an hour. But if he wanted to activate the jutsu he would need time...lots of time. It was sort of ironic, to buy time for the yondaime Sarutobi would have to be given time.

"Attention all ninja... I have a plan that could give us enough time to let the yondaime come into the battle, but for it to work I'll need you to stall the fox for twenty minutes. Understood?" said Hiruzen while using a jutsu taught to the academy teachers to amplify one's own voice.

The ninja responding didn't use any funny voice-amplification jutsu to answer the kage but the sea of voices that answered "Yes Sir!" was more than enough proof to Hiruzen Sarutobi that his ninja, the ninja of this village would give him enough time to complete his jutsu because if there was one thing that he believed in it was the people of Konoha. Sure, all of them were hard-headed and had temper problems- especially kunoichi... A fine example of that would be his ex-pupil Tsunade, the best medic-nin of the shinobi nations.

**Roughly 15 min. Later**

It was complete and utter chaos.

One minute everything seemed to be going all according to plan for the Konoha ninja, the next minute all their plans were shot straight to hell. At first it had seemed as though they were slowing the giant of a fox down, maybe even causing it some real damage, until the fox decided to 'magically' heal all its wounds in an instant- and get this, apparently it turns out that the fight they'd been having with the bijuu earlier was actually nothing more than a little game the beast had been playing with them- probably to f**k with their minds, now the beast was completely and totally dominating them and had destroyed nearly thirty-five percent of the entire ninja force of the leaf village.

Sarutobi was forced to watch the brutal murder of his men as the beast laid rampage to his forces while he prepared to activate his kekkai jutsu (barrier jutsu), but now it was complete and he pressed his palms to the ground, expertly channelling the energy he had managed to collect into the jutsu. Silently muttering the name of the technique four semi-transparent walls of orange light rose quickly from the ground, effectively sealing the bijuu in a chakra 'cage'.

'I swear… I will make you pay, Kyuubi!' thought the aged kage.

The problem though was that he couldn't make the monster pay, he just didn't have any jutsu powerful enough to do such a thing in his current aged state. And just as he had given up hope a toad nearly as large as the fox beast itself appeared, though that was not what rekindled his hope. No, it was the silhouette of a cloaked man that stood upon it who did that. The Sandaime could barely make out the relieved shouts of his men as they ran from the barrier, 'The Yondaime is here!'.

Relief flooded though the aged kage before he witnesses the extremely large toad boss summon- Gamabunta, on his head stood the fourth hokage, Minato Namikaze, the yellow flash. A flash of light illuminated the forest and when it was gone so was the kyuubi. At least for the moment, that is…

**TIMESKIP: 7 YEARS LATER**

The park was a place where children could play and make new friends, there are hundreds of tales of friendships and even romances starting out in the Konoha park, tales which would delight and enthral those it was told to- parents told stories of the park to their children which they had learned from their parents who had learned it from their parents, today though would definitely not become one of those tales for a young boy sat alone on a park bench, his head drooping. The boy had blonde hair with slight bangs framing his face, which had three vertical slash like birth marks on each side of his face, giving him a fox like appearance. His ocean blue eyes contained a hint of sadness and the white sweater he wore had an orange swirl.

The boy's name was Naruto Uzumaki and he was the local village pariah, many of the people who lived in the village would whisper amongst themselves when he approached and often times he thought they had mouthed the words 'demon' or even 'kyuubi'. The nickname Kyuubi was the one that confused him the most though- as far as he knew he didn't even have one tail let alone nine and he had very thoroughly checked too! When he had asked the old man to about it the man had just told him that he must have been imagining things and the old man would never lie to him so it must have been true, his mind must have been playing tricks on him.

But all he wanted to know right now was why the adults didn't want him to play with their kids in the park, it wasn't as if he had pranked them- ok so maybe that was a lie, but it had been partially truthful, he hadn't yet pranked ALL of them, though that was simply a matter of time…. Yes, simply a matter of time….Shaking his head to get rid of his somewhat evil intentions he looked up only to see a young pink haired girl playing by herself in the sand pit. A wide grin now adorning himself he excitedly jumped off the bench and ran towards the little girl.

"Hi! My name is Naruto! Wanna play?"

Now that he saw her up close he could see that she was about his age with green eyes, her hair, which was a vivid pink reached about the middle of her neck. She did however seem to be a bit taken aback by the blondes noisy introduction but was secretly nearly as excited as he was to finally meet someone who wanted to play with her.

"Sure… What did you want to play?" said the girl somewhat hesitantly.

Seemingly even more excited at being accepted on his offer Naruto excitedly replied "Tag!"

The girls nose seemed to crinkle up in disgust when she heard what he wanted to play "No way! Tag is for boys! I'm not a boy! How about we build sandcastles instead?"

"Huh-uh, I don't wanna make sandcastles, I wanna play tag, besides I'm a boy and we boys play tag!" said Naruto

The pink haired girl huffed indignantly "If that's how you want to be then I don't want to play with you!"

"Wait-wait-wait! I'll build sandcastles, okay?"

The little girl scooted to the side so that Naruto could have room in the sand box. For about fifteen minutes they laughed, teased and played with one another and even managed to build a sandcastle so big nearly all the sand in the box was used up, which they eventually named the Great-super-beautiful-deadly-cherry-konoha castle as a result of differing name opinions. They were just about to add a sixth floor when what seemed to be an older, grouchier version of the young girl shouted at the little girl

"Sakura! Come here this instant, it's time to go home"

"But mom!" argued the pink haired girl

"No buts young lady! You get away from that boy this second!" said the girls mother

Resigned to her mother's will the pink haired girl walked as slowly as she could towards her mom. Realizing something important Naruto ran after her.

"Wait! I forgot to ask your name!" shouted Naruto

Resisting the urge to giggle at the boy because of sand that covered his head (she had admittedly gotten slightly angry when he had tried to name the sandcastle 'Naruto's super –awesome –spectacular –shadowy –ninja fortress-castle) she replied "My names Sakura" hearing her mother shout for her she was forced to run so that her mother didn't decide to take away her dessert.

'Sakura, huh? It's a really nice name… I wonder if she'd want to eat ramen with me…" unknowingly Naruto's cheeks gained a slightly red tinge.

**MEANWHILE: THE OUTSKIRTS OF KONOHA**

Along the road towards Konoha a large man covered in a black travellers cloak walked slowly and purposefully towards the ninja village. On his back was a large sword that was held in a plain leather scabbard which had a strap that ran over his right shoulder. He had very spiky black hair that reached his waist. A scar ran from above his left eye towards his mouth strengthening his already frightening appearance and the aura of deadliness he carried. His brown eyes were hardened as though he had been through many years of hardship and war.

Suddenly a thin, average looking man who wore a standard shinobi pants appeared above his head, a katana held firmly in both hands ready to decapitate the giant of a man whom he had been following for nearly a month, just waiting for a moment when the man would drop his guard. A thin, barely noticeable grin appeared on the face of the larger swordsman as a loud 'tzing' sound was heard, signifying the clash of metal on metal.

"Kouman Kyoudai! I am here for your head!" shouted the younger man

The smile grin which had graced the larger man's-now known as Kouman- face simply got wider upon learning this. "They all say that," The source of the previous clashing noise was Kouman simply lifting his blade slightly out of its scabbard to intercept the blade aimed at his neck "before I kill them that is".

Quickly drawing his sword with the same hand that had grasped it earlier, he threw his attacker into a tree by swinging the blunt edge of the blade into his attacker. The younger man quickly stood up from his downed position though it was obvious that he was walking with an obvious limp and his head had a large, cartoonish bump. As the two swordsman engaged in battle it was obvious just how much Kouman was playing around with his thinner opponent as each time their swords clashed the younger mans arms were thrown back and his sword nearly flew from his hands, and he was just using his right hand to swing his sword which was more than twice the size of the opposing katana.

Quickly getting bored of simply swinging his sword he whispered "Nashide: Kiru!"

, the younger man's face was on of shock as the larger man was somehow instantly behind him walking onwards towards the village a large gash appeared across the man's chest, blood squirting from the wound.

Shaking his head in annoyance, Kouman said "Youngsters these days simply have no fear for their superiors…" As he walked on the symbol for beast flashed briefly on the back of his cloak, and the silhouette of a large creature surrounded his body.

A/N: And That's All Folks. Well that's the first chapter of my first story done and dusted, hope you guys, girls and others enjoyed it. And also can anyone let me know if the manga and anime's been improving. I stopped watching (and reading) sometime after Kishimoto gave Sasuke about a million powerups- including the eternal mangekyo sharingan, I'd really appreciate it!

**-THE GRIM OVERLORD****-**


	2. Chapter 2: Kouman Arrives

NARUTO:

THE ULTIMATE KENJUTSUSHI

By The Grim Overlord

A/N: Hello and welcome to the second instalment of 'Naruto: The Ultimate Kenjutsushi'. I would like to thank UnsafestMoss81 for reviewing the chapter which gave me the confidence to continue writing this story as well as person too lazy to make an account who gave me a really informative review, I see that you had a problem mainly with the fight at the end. Not to worry though I actually knew about the difficulty of taking a guy's head off (Some of my murder attempts haven't gone off as cleanly as I wanted them to ;) ) but more on that in further chapters. The plot is actually much more detailed than you could believe but I'm not all that good with fight scenes because this is actually my first story . Hopefully more people review this time around as this is my first story and I would like to get more feedback on it, I would really appreciate the time spent on writing a review. Now without further ado my fellow story lovers, the second chapter.

**Beast Speech**

**"I am a big, furry fox that can kill you all!**

**Beast Though**t

**'But, deep down I am only trying to compensate for the pain of losing the one I thought of as a father**'

Human Speech

"Hi, my name is Naruto! Let's be best friends for ever and ever! Did you know my psychologist told me I have serious issues due to the fact that I was hated by 99.99 percent of the population in my village?"

Human Thought

'I wish I had ramen right now'

_Jutsu_

_Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Style: Water Wall)_

Dark brown eyes darted rapidly to and fro at the entrance to Konoha, trying to gather as much information as possible about the village for its owner. This 'owner' stood at a little over seven feet, his massive body casting a long shadow on the ground. The village was quite empty, and the few people that were out were rushing home as the sun now started dipping below the mountains surrounding the village, its orange-ish glow making the village seem even more quiet. The owner was none other than Kouman Kyoudai, a travelling swordsman, or as he preferred to be called- a kenjutsushi.

Deciding that it would seem weird if he stood there like a dumbstruck idiot much longer he spared a glance to the left to look at the sleeping faces of two chunin, from what he could tell they were both in their late twenties or early thirties. Shaking his head at the lax security in what was called the most powerful of the great ninja villages, honestly, these idiots were practically begging someone to try and invade. Kouman started walking at a more than leisurely pace towards the red-light district of the village. The reason he was going there was not because he was in need of a little…. relief (though he was), but rather because he was looking for a job, and if you were in need of job and had the power and disregard for life Both human and other) the best place for you to be was in the red light district.

As he reached the more slum- like part of the village he suddenly heard a large thud emanating from near his feet. When he looked down he noticed a young blonde child frantically rubbing his head with a slightly pained expression, it looked almost as though he had walked head first into someone- oh… He should really have taken notice of where he was walking… Still, it was not like him to not be aware of his surroundings, even when he wasn't paying attention… It looked like the boy really had the makings of a good assassin, if he was able to walk that silently, and at such a young age no less.

"Excuse me child. I seems as though I didn't take notice of where I was walking. I hope you are not hurt?" said Kouman

It seemed the boy was a bit taken aback at the apology and only now glanced upwards, taking in the appearance of the gigantic man before him and lingering on the longsword strapped to his back. Carefully getting back to his feet and dusting himself off the young boy responded "Its fine 'ttebayo! My name's Naruto! What's yours!"

Slightly surprised at the exuberant reply of Naruto he calmly answered "Kouman. Kouman Kyoudai. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Naruto."

"Ne, Kouman-san, what is that on your back?" asked the exuberant blonde boy.

"This?" Kouman asked pointing to the sword on his back. Naruto hastily nodded. "Well this is my sword, the pride of my life."

"A sword! Can I see it?!"

"I'm sorry kid but I can't do that. You see it goes against my code. The only time I ever take my blade off is if I want to use it, and since you're still a kid and haven't actually annoyed me...yet. I see no reason to use it." replied the kenjutsushi.

The blonde seemed to be a little sad when he heard the older man's reply, but seemed to get excited when he heard that he only took it off when he wanted to use it. "So you use it to kill stuff, right?"

Kouman deadpanned at the blonde's answer and replied "...Well, yes, I guess."

"Wow! That's so cool!" responded Naruto

Straightening himself up, Kouman spoke to the boy once more "Sorry, kid. I really have to get going, maybe I'll see you again before I leave this village. Bye."

Walking away Kouman noticed that the boy was still following him and had his earlier suspicions confirmed when he saw that Naruto was tailing him like a pro, however no that he was consciously taking in his surroundings it was easy for him to notice the exuberant little blonde. Sighing to himself he noticed that the place he was looking for was nearby. It was a little bar on the corner of a dilapidated looking three-storey building made of wood. It had a green door and its windows were painted the same emerald green colour. Above the door was a little wooden plaque on which the word bar was painted in red. Taking notice of the little boy's hiding place he walked inside. Inside the bar were several round wooden tables that had seen better days, the only people in the bar (besides himself of course) was the rather old, leathery looking barman who was cleaning a glass and three relatively large men sitting around a table to the back of the bar. They had obviously wanted to attack the man who had entered the bar, probably so they could pay their tab, but had obviously backed off when they had seen the giant of a man enter.

Not taking any further notice of the three wannabe thugs sitting in the bar he walked towards the counter "Hey barkeep, you got any merc' jobs for me?" the bar keeper seemed to seeth in anger before he responded "Not here you idiot! God you mercenaries these days just keep getting stupider and stupider! In my day-" getting annoyed with the old man he quickly interrupted him "Yeah, yeah, you were all so awesome and spent the whole day playing hide-and-seek with fairies and dancing in the rain with leprechauns, just shut the fuck up and tell me where to go".

"The back. The door's right there, you muscle-head" replied the annoyed old man while pointing to a door on his left.

"Thank you for your help" replied Kouman.

MEANWHILE: OUTSIDE THE BAR

Naruto had just gotten back from the playground with Sakura and headed home when he turned a corner and ran into a massive swordsman, and was now hanging upside down in an alley so he could spy on said swordsman, who was now sitting in some bar. All in all it was just another, normal, everyday event, other than the fact that he had yet to prank someone... but there was still time though... and he hadn't yet gotten that fat-ass back for last time...mmm, maybe later.

Unfortunately, with the glass tinted the way it was all he could make out were barely distinguishable shadows moving through the bar. Damn he was just going to have to wait for the burly man to get done with his business. Though, now that he thought about it, he would get in really big trouble if he didn't go home in time for the curfew imposed on him by the sandaime, but it wasn't as if the man could see everything that happened in the village in a little crystal ball, was it?

In the hokage tower the third hokage sneezed so hard that the kage hat on his head fell off. "A-a-achoo!...Guess someone is talking about me...Well, back to 'work' ". The old man then glanced back at the orb on his desk and gave off a little giggle as he saw two women in their early twenties fondling one another's breasts. 'Aaah, it's good to be hokage...' thought the aged kage. Somewhere else in the room an anbu was sighing sporadically as he thought on the old man's perverted tendencies. 'Damn, at least Kakashi doesn't watch other guys wives while they're fooling around... wait a minute, isn't that my wife?!'

Kouman's P.O.V

Back in the bar, Kouman had just entered the room when he saw a man that looked nearly identical to the barman, sitting in a large throne like chair in front of an old oak desk. The man then quickly beckoned him to sit in the armchair across from him. The room had a slightly medieval feel to it as it was dark and grey and even had what looked like torture devices lying in a corner. It even had the customary medieval European fireplace and hunting trophy's.

Taking the seat offered to him, Kouman spoke "I need a quick job. Something with decent pay, and requiring a lot of skill. And as I said before it has to be quick, I need to get me a decent meal". Listening intently to Kouman's speech the man quickly searched through the many papers inside the drawers in his desk and pulled a worn looking piece of parchment out. "I 'got this request a while back, from some pompous lookin' rich guy in fancy old suit. Don' know if it's what you wanted, it's a bit too difficult for one man".

Hearing this Kouman's face lit up in a big grin and he quickly grabbed the parchment from the old man's hands "Rank seven... Not too bad... And the pay seems pretty good too. I'll take it. Thanks old man, you're definitely not like your brother standing at the counter" replied Kouman.

His words only served to confound the old man, as he looked at him in confusion "I'm a woman, sonny. And what do you mean by brother?" Now that he thought about it, the man had spoken in a voice reminiscent of an old lady's. "Oh nothing, it's just... you two look really alike. Are you sure you aren't family- you know what, never mind. Thank you for your help" having said all that he had wanted to say the swordsman left the building and banged the door just to annoy that annoying old barman. He hated it when people tried to lecture him, never mind people he had barely known for five seconds.

Now that he had finished up with that he needed to get going, and where he was going he couldn't allow the blonde kid to follow. Barely noticing him in the darkness of the alley, he headed to where he had made not of him hiding earlier.

Naruto's P.O.V

Kouman had just gotten out of the bar and Naruto had prepared himself to tail him once again, before he noticed that the man was headed straight towards him. Feeling himself stiffen he thought to himself 'There's no way he can be headed towards me... He must just have some business here in the alley". Though what that business was escaped Naruto at the moment, as the alley held nothing important and it seemed as though no-one had gone through there in years. Unfortunately for the blonde though, Kouman was headed straight towards him as he had feared. The man's large hand wrapped around his arm and yanked him from his hiding place.

Seeing that he had been caught, Naruto gave off a large grin and guilty chuckle while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Hah, hah, hah. Caught me didn't you? Just what I would expect from such a great swordsman!"

"I prefer to be called a kenjutsushi. And trying to butter me up won't help you, kid" said Kouman "By the way... why is it that you're following me?" continued the self-proclaimed kenjutsushi.

"Kenjutsushi? Doesn't that mean the same thing as swordsman?" asked Naruto, confused.

"Not anymore it doesn't. Not since those damn ninja began calling themselves swordsman when they just got a bunch of swords and started swinging them around like a bunch of talentless, retarded idiots. Besides, Kenjutsushi practitioners lead a more traditional life and follow a strict moral code, though this code differs depending on the kenjutsushi" luckily the boy was still so young or else he might have challenged him to a duel or given him a long speech detailing the differences between a kenjutsushi and a swordsman.

"I'm getting off topic. Look, you need to stop following me. I'm about to go on a job and you'll only get in the way. I don't want your blood on my hands- or sword, as it were. Just go home to your mother, she's probably looking for you." exclaimed the darker haired man, a slight note of irritation discernible in his voice

Naruto's face fell and he hesitated before answering "Well there's no need for you to worry about that. I'm an orphan" explained the boy.

There was a long moment of awkward silence between the two. '...Now I feel like a bit of a jackass.' thought Kouman "Look kid. You can't follow me right now. If you do you are going to get hurt" so saying, the kenjutsushi walked away from the boy, noticing that the kid was once again following him. 'God, doesn't that kid listen to anyone? Well, I am strong enough to take care of both of us so I guess he won't be too much of a bother...'

**A WHILE LATER**

Kouman's P.O.V

Training ground forty-four, a forest cordoned off for the private use of Konoha's ninja. However, ninja weren't the only beings that wandered Konoha's largest training ground. The forest held a rich ecosystem and was home to some of the largest and most dangerous carnivores on the face of the continent. With its massive trees, dangerous animals as well as its lack of light it was a training ground only the best, and dumbest, wandered into.

Kouman however wasn't there to bask in its glory, but rather to carry out the rank-7 mission he had taken up. Unlike ninja who held a five lettered ranking system for themselves, mercenaries had missions ranked 1 through 11, one being the easy stuff reminiscent of D-ranks and usually carried out by beginners, rank 11 missions were similar to S-ranks and were usually carried out by teams of five or more. That was another way that merc's differed from ninja. Ninja were normally put on teams of three or four while average mercenaries had teams of five or six while the best normally worked on their own.

And Kouman, not to be arrogant, was definitely one of the best mercenaries.

"You can come out now Naruto, I know you've still been following me."

Naruto emerged from behind two small bushes. "Sorry. I just really want to see how a swordsman fights, 'ttebayo"

"I told you, I'm not a damn swordsman, I'm a kenjutsushi! Learn the damn difference!" Kouman couldn't understand. Normally he was quiet and didn't have many outbursts, but since coming to this goddamn village he had had to shout more times than he could remember. And he hadn't even been there for three hours yet! Maybe that will of fire thing he had heard numerous Konoha ninja talk about was actually the ability to annoy everyone they fought to death? He sure felt like he was going to fall over at the blonde's antics.

"Forgetting that, we need to climb this fence and I don't see how you can seeing as you are so short." continued the man.

"Can too!" shouted the short boy, and so saying he jumped over the two and a half meter fence that surrounded the forest. 'Impressive... especially for someone that young. He really has the makings of a decent fighter... mmm... maybe I should- no, if I did that the boy would end up talking me to death'

Naruto turned around to look back at where Kouman stood so that he could stick his tongue out at the man, only to find that the man wasn't there. Turning around he saw him leaning against a tree several meters away "How did yo-" "You still have a long way to go before you can be half as good as me kid" interrupted Kouman

Kouman then took out his mission document and began walking toward the area specified. His mission was to bring back the dead body of a giant moss- boar, and despite the name it wasn't a fusion of moss and boar, but rather a boar that lived so long plants began living on it- especially moss. It was also known for being extremely strong, and this was a giant version of said animal.

The area in which it specified that the boar lived was the south-western area of the forest, just past the giant tigers which didn't interest Kouman as much. Though he did worry that the boy would run off and get eaten by a snake or something.

It took them nearly a half-hour but eventually the two did manage to reach the clearing where the boar were said to be, and the sun was now nowhere in sight. The moonlight streamed through the thick forest canopy, revealing a family of five gargantuan boar. According to Kouman there were two females, one male and two little ones.

The largest was well over twelve meters tall and nearly twice as long, the two smaller ones were slightly over nine while the babies were still pretty small, about the same size as Naruto. The family of boar were sleeping in a circle, with the largest one opening one of his eye's every few minutes to check for any predators. Fortunately Naruto and Kouman were standing on one of the lower branches overlooking the wild pigs. Naruto had been forced to sit piggybacked on Kouman's neck as he couldn't jump high enough to reach the massive branches, much to his annoyance.

"I need you to be perfectly still, Naruto. You could get in real danger if you step down here with me. Besides, it'll be too much of a hassle to carry you again" Kouman said, his voice dripping with unvoiced laughter

Though he was annoyed by the man's teasing, he tried not to show it so as not to give the man further motive to continue with his teasing, and instead calmly responded "Ok Mr swordsman"

"It's kenju- never mind, I won't be able to get you to listen anyway" the kenjutsushi then dropped from the branches, making quite a large noise as he landed which caused the larger moss- boar to wake up and signal the others to escape. Calmly taking a wide-legged stance, Kenju put his fingertips on the handle of his blade and waited for the boar to make the first attack. Several seconds later he got his wish when the boar charged towards him at a lightning pace, his horns aimed at the head of the man who had dared entered its territory.

Kouman drew his sword so quickly Naruto didn't even see his hand move, and batted the boar aside with the flat edge of his blade. Unbelievably, the beast that must have weighed at least a ton went flying into a tree causing it to fall over. Up in the tree, the blonde boy was looking intently at Kouman's blade.

It had the shape of a standard longsword and was coloured a shiny gray, the edge of the blade was rusted and worn as was the rest of it. It was longer than most longsword's though and slightly thicker as well. The handle though was a shiny silver, but the most striking thing about it was the 'X' made of a green crystal embedded into the hilt.

Kouman waited for the boar to get up and regain its bearings before he charged towards it and aimed a slice at the thick neck of the animal, hoping to end its life as quickly as possible. The attack failed when the boar lowered his head and tried to stop it with its horns. One of the horns simply fell to the ground, as if it had been made of butter, the second one however couldn't be cut straight through. Instead of letting go of the blade, Kouman held on as he was thrown with his sword.

Kouman was sent skidding across half of the clearing, kicking up a cloud of dust in his wake. Holding his sword in front of his chest, Kouman blocked a tackle from the now one-horned boar. Making a flicking motion the boar tipped completely over. Kouman slowly put his sword back in its leather sheath on his back.

Walking towards the downed animal who was frantically to get back up (with little success) he grabbed it's horn and threw it up into the air with one hand. The boar flew above the trees and looked something like a meteor falling to earth because of its rotund appearance. Just before it landed Kouman hopped up on one foot and gave it a roundhouse kick to the ground. The animal's body was covered in blood that had seeped from its many wounds. With nearly all of its leftover strength it struggled to one knee, determined to protect its family. "Relax. I won't be going after your family. Now get up, you have given me more of a challenge than hundreds who have face me before. It is only fitting that you go in the way of the warrior" Kouman calmly stated as he looked into the animal's eyes.

Redrawing his sword, he ran towards the animal once more with it charging at him as well. The finishing blow came faster than most would have been able to see, but Naruto had. Kouman had at the last moment leapt next to the animal's right side with his blade tucked under his arm and held by his left. Then he had dragged the blade across its side by twisting his torso in mid-leap.

Kouman then called out the name of his attack while placing his sword back onto his back. "_Nashide no ken: Kiru: Double!"_ . Naruto couldn't believe it but when he took a look at the corpse of the boar he saw too long, deep cuts on both sides of the animal's body, which meant that he had completely missed one of the attacks 'fast' thought the miniature blonde. The kenjutsushi then made his way back to Naruto, carrying the massive beast over his shoulder and hopping up into the trees with it like it was nothing more than a sack of potatoes. "So, what do you think about my fighting abilities?" asked the man

A moment of silence passed before Naruto replied. "Th-th-th-That was awesome! Please, train me in your style, sensei!" the boy had stars in his eyes as he waited expectantly for the man's answer.

"Uhh... no." replied the man simply

The blonde's previous hopeful expression was now one of surprise, he just couldn't believe that the man didn't want to train him. And he had really wanted him to, too.

"Why not, sensei?"

"Because I really don't want to, that's why. And I'm not your sensei." replied Kouman. The boy was really persistent, he had to give him that, at the very least.

'sigh' "You aren't going to stop asking me are you?"

"No, 'ttebayo"

And this conversation was repeated over and over for the rest of the walk back to the guild and when Kouman had to carry an exhausted Naruto to his home (with the blonde giving barely audible, vague directions for him to follow and yet annoyingly and noisily asking if Kouman could train him)

**THE NEXT DAY**

He had just woken up really early in the morning (about 11am) and had simply wanted to walk quietly to the guild to get a three-day mission, but no! That kid from the day before just had to follow him- again! Sighing, he continued walking while trying to ignore the constant subtle noises the blonde was making so that he could pretend that he wasn't being followed by an annoying blonde brat from hell.

'I guess I could, maybe, bear with him for a while before I have to leave for my mission, the kid does grow on you after a while.' thought the large 'swordsman'. "Hey Naruto" he called out to the boy.

The boy's head popped up from behind a nearby dustbin, his face breaking up in a wide grin. "Yes, sensei!"

"I'm not your sensei..." deadpanned Kouman "Anyway, come over here for a minute. I want to speak with you" continued the man

The little boy rushed over as fast as his little legs could carry him (which was actually pretty fast for someone of his age), his blue eyes twinkling with excitement. 'Bless him, the boy probably thinks I'm going to teach him a fancy kenjutsushi technique' and barely after he had thought it, Naruto's piercing voice proved him right. "So, what technique are you going to teach me now?" said the blonde

"None."

"Uhh? So why did you call me?" asked the boy

"First of all, I know you're following me so skulking around like some kind of crook is simply a waste of time. And secondly, today I'm leaving for a three day long mission..." he trailed off, hoping that the young boy would get the hint.

Naruto's eyes closed in thought and he folded his arms. A few seconds later his eyes flashed open, and his ever-present grin widened. "Ohh! I get it!" on the outside Kouman was calm and collected, as always, but on the inside his mouth was breaking out into a grin just like Naruto's 'Maybe the kid isn't as dumb as I first thought".

"You want me to pack for the trip, right? I'll get ready right away and wait for you at the gate, okay Kouman-sensei?" Kouman sweat dropped. Not waiting for an answer the boy ran off, leaving Kouman to try and shout after him "No Naruto, that's not what I me- ahh, just forget it... he wouldn't listen to me anyway. I might barely have known him for a day but what I know about him is that if he sets his mind to something no-one can tell him anything different, and he won't stop till he does it... He kinda reminds me of myself at his age... maybe I really should train the kid..."

**A/N: And that is the end of this chapter, hope you had fun reading this. I actually have the plot set out for the next three or so chapters which should all be released by the end of next month if all goes according to plan. Also, I really want to reach ten reviews soon and I hope you guys can help me reach my goal. And once more to person too lazy to make an account, I think you should actually make one. I would definitely take the time to read (and review) it, as from what I can see you would be very good. If this actually does spur you on to make an account, PM me. I would love more feedback from you. Sorry for the long authors notes and, Until next time, take care. **

-THE GRIM ONE-


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